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All through the threading that we have done so far in this document is kind of a manual process, kind of one frame to the next, to the next, to the next. We want to speed this up especially for longer documents with really long text threads.

So, with that in mind, let us go to the layout menu, choose pages and we will add one new page that will jump us to page two. Let us place that same Word document again by choosing file, place and selecting the sample text word document.

Make sure show import option is enabled and click open so we will use that same preset again, normal to body copy which is going to map our fonts and styles for us and click okay.

Right now our place cursor is the place cursor you have basically been seeing all along, that little square. However, if I press the ALT key or the option key it changes to a little squiggly arrow, consider this semi-automatic mode. Let me show what I mean.

If I want to place this text, I can click and drag, click the out port where it is over set, click and drag, click the out port and so on. Now, I am going to press CTRL Z, one, two, three, four, five times to undo all those five steps. On the Mackintosh, that would be command Z and I should just mention here that InDesign has unlimited undo, beautiful feature. Any thing can be undone.

If you did not undo too many times, your place cursor will still be loaded with that word document. If you did undo too many times, no problem, just go back to file menu, place the story again. This time instead of just clicking, press and hold the ALT key on Windows or option key on the Mackintosh and now when you click and drag that frame or you would click and fill an existing frame, you will notice that it places that bit of text but then preloads the cursor again so you can continue to place throughout your document.

Now, let us go ahead and undo several more times and this time we are going to place it with another keyboard shortcut, non-optional ALT this time. Press the shift key instead and you should notice a subtle change inside your place cursor. It is the squiggly arrow but instead of being dashed, it is completely solid.

I know these are subtle visual cues but when you get used to them, they will save you a lot of times. So, hold the shift key down, come up here near the top left corner of this page and click. Give it a moment because InDesign is actually placing a very long word document.

Let us look at the pages panel to see just how long it was. Here is page one where we are experimenting with just four initial frames but here starting on page two, we place that entire word document by holding the shift key when you place story. It auto flow the entire story and made as many pages as required to upload that text.

So, up here in the 20's all the way to page 30, we finally place the very end of that long, long story. So, you can click and place individual frames. You can hold ALT on Windows or option on the MAC to semi-auto place and hold the shift key for a complete auto flow option.

All through the threading that we have done so far in this document is kind of a manual process, kind of one frame to the next, to the next, to the next. We want to speed this up especially for longer documents with really long text threads. So, with that in... click to read more